I recently aquired a 7 week 2 day old rotty girl. I took her to the vet the day after she came home and she was very healthy. She weighed 13.5lbs, no worms (breeder had wormed her), she recieved her second puppy shot. Everything was great. I have a two and a half year old doberman, Spike, who never had issues eating and he eats a high protein dog food from my local feed store so I started Lucy on the same brand large breed puppy food. She ate fine at first then stopped. Then she lost .5 lbs according to my scale at home, so I switched her to Iams large breed puppy and she seemed to really like it. Then she stopped eating it again, so I started to mix it with wet food. She ate it then stopped. Now she has lost another 1 lb. according to my scale. This has all happened within a week and three days. What am I going to do? Please any advise would be greatly appreciated.

So you saying in a week that you've had her, she went from 13.5 lbs to 12lbs? HOw confident do you feel of your scale accuracy? Go to your vets, weigh her there. You can only compare weight with the same scale. Yours could be off by 1lb or 2. Go in, weigh her (there is no charge, the scales are usually out front). And then if she has indeed lost weight from when she was at the vets the last time, go "Oh, should I be concerned that she has lost weight in the past weeK". See what they say.

However, I'm wondering if she's not eating the Large Breed Puppy foods, since they are MUCH lower in protein. Many on here don't believe in puppy foods, there is no need to reduce protein intake, but rather just ration portions. Make sure she doesn't grow too fast by not overfeeding her, not increasing her grain intake over hte necessary protein she needs. She can eat what your Doby is eating if you've been happy with that food, and you feel it is good. Iams is a terrible food. I'm not sure what your local feed is like.

Thank you for your feedback. I called my vet before reading this and they didn't act concerned. They asked me if she was playing and active, which she is. They wanted me to call them back on Friday and give them an update. I am feeding her large breed puppy. When I asked my feed store they suggested it and told me that it was high in protien. Sounds like they really don't know. Do you have any suggestions in regards to brands of food? Good point about the scale. It could be off,however there was still at least 1 lb weight loss on the same scale.

I was going to say just that. If you are weighing her on one scale only and she is losing weight, I would check it out, but that is not the case. Take a week and only weigh her on one scale and see what happens.

She just left her littermates, where she had to wolf down food or wait until the next meal. Now she has food, she may well lose a little weight before she starts to gain again.

High protien foods are not necessarily the best thing for pups as well.

Find a good, balanced lower protien food (those high protiens like 40+% is too high IMO).

Timberwolf Organics
Nature's Variety
Are my top 2 for both quality, and palability if you think she's being fussy.

Innova is a great food, but for some reason a lot of dogs turn up their noses to it (must be the way they process/extrude the food).

I would stay away from manufacturers that claim their foods are "baked". I question the true digestability of these foods, have seen too many dogs with loose stools/lose weight on them. I won't get too into it, but I think extrusion breaks down the ingredients well enough to be digested properly.

I too would be a little concerned with such a young puppy losing weight but it may well be caused by stress.

If this pup is now 7weeks +2 days and you've had her for 1 week+3 days then she was far too young to leave her mother and litter mates. Being taken from the litter is stressful for puppies at the best of times so I can only think it would be more so for such a young puppy.

When I got her she was 7 weeks and 2 days and I've had her for a week and a half. I thought that even at that age she might have been a little young. She was the last one left. She probably is stressed. I am going to weigh her again tomorrow on my scale and if she's lost anything else she is going to the vet.

Thanks for the input everyone. Timberwolf Organics and Innova are available about 45 minutes away and the Natures Variety I can get locally. I don't mind driving. In your opinion which is best? Spike is eating a private label brand from my feed store it is made by the same people that make their livestock feed.

If Spike is eating a food that is made by the same company as livestock feed...I doubt it's a quality food. Even though you said it is high protein, if the proteins are coming from corn and grains, and by-products...it's not digestable protein and cannot be utilized the way meat can.
Take a look at the bag of food that Spike is eating. What are the first 5 ingredients?

I've had great results with Timberwolf Organics (but the store has a hard time getting it around here), and Innova is also a very good food and I use it in my food rotation.

Nature's Variety, I have not used..but I have heard good things about it.

Timberwolf Organics as well as Innova are high in calories...you will have to feed less food.

Puppies do NOT need high protein! Puppies need slow, gradual growth, feeding too many calories or too much protein can cause growth deformities. I do not believe in feeding puppy food - think about it: in a "natural" situation, puppies would eat milk, then regurgitated food (which has already lost some calories because it's partially-digested), then leftovers (which are always the lower-calorie parts of the prey, the dogs who actually hunt eat the high-calorie/high protein parts), and ONLY when they are old enough to actually expend the energy to hunt for themselves, do they start eating the high protein/high calorie parts of the prey. A good-quality full-lifecycle or adult food is all most puppies need or should have, IMO, and this opinion is becoming more and more widely accepted.

__________________ Amanda
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"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx

You can order timberwolf online. They have free delivery if you order over $100. If I order on Monday, it is here Thursday or Friday. I feed the Dakota Bison and the Elk, mixed, as Greta has allergies and these have been very helpful. I also order a small bag of the salmon and mix it in occasionally.

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